The Science of Man in Ancient Greece
Contributors: Paul Tucker (Translator)
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; University of Chicago Press
Published: February 1, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780226735306
Subjects: European history: BCE to c 500 CE; History of ideas, intellectual history; Human biology & related topics; Social & cultural anthropology; BCE to c 500 CE; Fiction; Philosophy; Literature: Classics; Ancient Greece; Anthropology - General; History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical; History & Surveys - General; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Classics; Greece; History; Philosophical anthropology; Philosophy, Ancient
First sentence: Classical sources tell how, in the first half of the fourth century B.C., Parrhasius was criticized by his fellow painter Euphranor for depicting Theseus with the delicate color of a man "fed on roses" rather than on "ox meat," like Euphranor's own version of the hero.
Description: "Although the ancient Greeks did not have an anthropology as we know it, they did have an acute interest in human nature, especially questions of difference. What makes men different from women, slaves different from free men, barbarians different from Greeks? Are these differences visible in the body? How can they be classified and explained?".

"Maria Michela Sassi reconstructs Greek attempts to answer such questions from Homer's day to late antiquity, ranging across physiognomy, ethnography, geography, medicine, and astrology. Sassi demonstrates that in the Greek science of man, empirical observations were inextricably bound up with a prejudiced view of the free Greek male as superior to all others.

Thus, because women were assumed to have pale skin from staying indoors too much, Greek biology and medicine sought to explain this feature as an indication of the "cold" nature of women, as opposed to the "hot" constitution of men.".

"For this English translation, Sassi has rewritten the introduction and updated the text and references throughout, and Sir Geoffrey Lloyd has provided a new foreword. All Greek texts are presented in translation, and especially important Greek terms have been transliterated. More than twenty illustrations augment the text."--BOOK JACKET.